1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and systems for collectively tracking demographics of starter drug samples and particularly to collectively tracking demographics of such samples dispensed to a plurality of patients from a plurality of different dispensing locations so that the dispensing of advertised starter drug samples provided to the plurality of patients at diverse locations under the direction of the physician for each of the patients may be rapidly tracked and analyzed.
2. Description of Prior Art
It is well known that in the marketing and promotion of drugs and other pharmaceuticals it is a common practice for the manufacturers of such drugs to provide starter samples to physicians. The physicians then normally provide their patients with such starter samples free of charge so that a physician can determine whether or not the particular drug is suitable for the needs of the individual patient without the patient having to incur the expense of initially purchasing the product. Similarly such practice is also advantageous to the manufacturer of the drugs since it allows the physician to become familiar with the drug while also allowing the patient to become familiar with the drug without initially having to incur an expense. However, the manufacturers of these drugs normally do not have any way of tracking the dispensing of these drugs by the physician with respect to the dosage amount, quantity amount, or the demographics of the patients to whom these drugs are dispensed. Such information would be helpful to the drug manufacturer in terms of doing a market analysis as to the usage and dispensing of these drugs including the geographical distribution of these drugs and market penetration throughout the country. This type of marketing information can be of great value to pharmaceutical manufacturers. Up to the present time applicant is not aware of any satisfactory system which allows this to be done.
There have been prior art attempts, such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,971,362 and 4,807,909 to provide control stubs or other simple mechanisms using preprinted prescriptions for sample dosages in an effort to control their dispensing. These prior art systems have involved the dispensing of these drugs by the pharmacist in response to the preprinted prescription. However, these systems do not permit or provide for a varying of the dosage or quantity to be dispensed by the physician nor do they enable rapid reporting by the pharmacy back to the drug manufacturer so that vital marketing information can be obtained by the drug manufacturer. For example, such systems do not take advantage of electronics or computer processing to facilitate such transfer nor do they take advantage of modern-day conventional smart card technology for use by the pharmacist and the physician to effectuate rapid tracking of this information and provision of it to the drug manufacturer. Furthermore, such prior art systems known to applicant do not provide for marketing information with respect to the particular drug starter sample to be provided in conjunction with a variable prescription blank to be completed by the physician. These disadvantages of the prior art are overcome by the present invention.